Canadian police officer killed during arrest linked to Iran-backed terror campaign

A police officer in Toronto, Canada, is killed during a shootout with apparent links to an Iran-backed terror campaign targeting Jewish, Israeli and American targets.

Police were executing a search warrant early this morning in the York district of Toronto when the officer was shot, Toronto police say.

Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw identifies the slain officer as Marc Pinizzotto, 43.

A police spokesperson says several officers entered an apartment on the fourth floor of a high rise.

A 19-year-old fired at the officers, striking Pinizzotto. Another officer shot the suspect multiple times, sending him to the hospital in critical condition, the spokesperson says.

Demkiw says another suspect, Zara Jabbi, 19, is on the lam and considered armed and dangerous.

Canadian police say the arrest was related to “a number of shootings,” including an attack at the US consulate in Toronto in March, according to the Toronto Star.

The alleged mastermind behind the consulate shooting was Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, according to a criminal complaint filed in a New York court in April.

Al-Saadi is an Iraqi-Iranian national with deep ties to the Iranian regime who orchestrated a terror campaign against Jewish, Israeli and American targets in the US, Europe and Canada, according to US federal prosecutors.

According to the investigation, Al-Saadi said “our people” were behind two attacks in Canada, describing the targets as “the consulate and the Knesset.” Investigators said the description referred to the March shooting at the consulate and an attack on a Synagogue.

“In Canada, we have our guys,” Al-Saadi told a confidential source.